Using social media to market your business is a great idea, especially if your audience is receptive to the content you’re sharing.

But how do you really know if your social media strategy is generating the intended results?

Like many small business owners and marketing professionals, you take the time every month (or more often) to visit each channel, record some numbers, and examine your findings.

In its most basic form, this approach entails the following steps:

Visit each site – such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook – when you have time in your schedule to do so

Dig around for the information that’s most important to your social strategy

Record it in a spreadsheet for future use

Repeat the process after the next cycle ends (such as in a week or month)

Compare the most recent period to the one before it

While this process can turn out the right information, it’s extremely time consuming. This is particularly true if your social media channels are robust, such as a Twitter account with tens of thousands of followers and just as many Likes and Retweets.

The Solution

Rather than manually collect social media data, you can use an all-in-one business dashboard that does the work for you.

While manual collection can take as long as several hours to complete, Dasheroo can provide the data you need within a matter of seconds. Even better, data is collected and displayed in real time, ensuring that you always have access to exactly what you need.

It takes a lot to execute a successful social media strategy. If you’re spending too much time collecting data and not enough time on execution, it may be time for a change.

Once you make the switch, you’ll come to realize that you have more time in your day and instant access to all the data you need to make confident decisions.

With 2017 coming to an end, there is no better time than now to plan for the new year.

While you’re sure to have many questions regarding your marketing plan, here’s one that you need to address today: do you have intentions of using a social media dashboard in 2018?

This may be a change to what you’re used to, but over time you’ll come to find that it’s one of the best ways to get more out of your social media strategy.

If you’re convinced that you need a social media dashboard, here are three steps you can take today to ensure that you’re ready to hit the ground running when the calendar turns:1

1. Choose the Right Provider

We’re not going to tell you that Dasheroo is the only social media dashboard. And we’re not going to tell you that we’re the best (even though we think we are).

What we will tell you is this: Dasheroo is a great choice for a number of reasons, including a large integration library and industry leading prices (including a free plan).

If you need a social media dashboard provider for 2018, you’re in the right place. We’ll take care of your every need.

2. Choose the Right Integrations

Which social media platforms do you currently use? Which ones do you have plans to use in the new year?

Once you answer these questions, you’ll know which integrations make the most sense for your business.

For example, many companies consider Facebook the most powerful social media platform. If you feel the same way, you’ll want to make sure you’re tracking data through a high powered social media dashboard.

3. Use the Data Wisely

It’s a good feeling to setup a social media dashboard, but that’s just the start. You need to use the data wisely, as this can be the difference between success and failure.

From the best type of content to post on Facebook to top Instagram hashtags, your dashboard will always be providing you with top notch data. You simply need to put it to good use.

Conclusion

So, there you have it. These are the types of things you can do if you have plans to use a social media dashboard in 2018.

With approximately 28 million small businesses in the United States, you know one thing to be true: there is plenty of competition out there.

Regardless of your industry or location, there will always be companies nipping at your heels. This is why it’s important to do whatever it takes to reach the top and stay at the top.

With the help of social media, you’ll find it much easier to reach your target audience, connect with current customers, and attract new business.

As you may know, there’s more to social media success than posting updates to Twitter and Facebook a few times per week. You need to go well beyond this if you want to generate top of the line results.

Here are three of the best ways for small local businesses to use a social media dashboard:

1. Track Engagement

You need to do more than post updates to your social media accounts. You need to do whatever it takes to boost engagement, day after day.

A social media dashboard isn’t a magic pill for increasing engagement, but it can definitely work in your favor.

Make it your goal to improve social media engagement. Your business will benefit from this approach in the long run.

2. Facebook Ads

Have you come to find that Facebook Ads are a great way to drive potential customers to your website?

If so, you need to dive into the finer details to ensure that you’re getting the most bang for your buck.

With a Facebook Ads dashboard, you’ll always have a clear idea of what is and isn’t working. This makes it easy to tweak your strategy on the fly.

3. Learn More About Your Industry

Do you ever take the time to see what’s performing best on social media in regards to your industry as a whole? This can be difficult to do without the right tools, but a simple task once you have everything in order.

A great example of this is the use of an Instagram analytics dashboard. This allows you to track things such as hashtag performance, which gives you a better idea of what’s resonating with your audience.

Conclusion

Don’t let anyone tell you that a small local business can’t do big things on social media.

With these examples guiding you, it won’t be long before you’re taking advantage of everything social media has to offer.

If you were excited about that, you’ll definitely love what we have for you this time: Facebook Reviews insights.

Tracking online reviews of your business has never been more important. This is especially true when it comes to Facebook, the most popular social networking platform in the world.

Here’s a quick rundown of the new insights, all of which tie in nicely with other key metrics you’re tracking for your business:

Recent Reviews

View the ratings and comments for your most recent reviews, all from the convenience of your Facebook dashboard.

Ratings Summary

Are you interested in tracking a breakdown of the star ratings (1 – 5) of the reviews your company has received over a specific timeframe? We have you covered!

Average Rating

The higher your average rating the better. We make it easy to track your average business rating over a specified timeframe.

Lifetime Rating

What is the lifetime rating of your business? Forget about reviewing a particular period of time, Dasheroo can give you a complete overview.

New Reviews

Track the number of new reviews you’ve received over a specific timeframe.

Total Reviews

How many reviews has your company received on Facebook all time? Track this number to ensure that it’s always on the rise.

We’d love to hear what you think about these Facebook Reviews insights. Are there others you’d like to see added in the future? Let us know! Also, in the upcoming weeks we’ll be rolling out some additional review insights from some more well-known apps so stay tuned!

While there’s a lot to like about this Instagram account, which can be seen by its nearly 60 million followers, there’s one lesson that stands out in the crowd: don’t be afraid to post photos shared by others.

It goes without saying that you’ll post your own photos from time to time, but encouraging submissions, such as from your customers, is a great idea.

Even if you don’t know the first thing about this India-based fruit drink company, you can learn from their Instagram account.

The one thing that stands out is the use of unique images with a bright, cartoon-like feel. Not only does this allow the company’s personality to shine through, but it makes for a distinct and unique experience.

To ensure that your marketing strategy is trending in the right direction, it’s imperative to study your YouTube analytics data on a regular basis. In addition to basic data – such as the number of video uploads and views – there are other details that deserve your attention. Here are some you may have overlooked in the past:

YouTube Analytics: Watch Time

Don’t focus all so much time on number of views that you overlook the importance of watch time. We define this as follows:

“The total time that users spent watching your videos, in minutes.”

Taking this one step further, if you find that your watch time spiked during a particular period, review your video library for a better idea of the cause.

YouTube Analytics: Engagement

This means something different on every social platform. With YouTube, focus on the following:

Shares

Comments

Likes (and dislikes)

For our tomato video our host would want to know if people are liking it, commenting on his content and sharing it with their friends and followers. If he used Dasheroo he could tell quickly what is going on with his video and see that he has a ton of thumbs up, a few thumbs down and the overall number of comments he’s getting. You can also see if you look at his comments he often replies to people asking questions. That sparks more engagement.

So when engagement begins to pick up, keep the momentum by jumping in on the action and respond to comments. Along with this, you can produce similar videos (since you already know they interest your audience).

So…

When it comes to YouTube analytics, you’ll never be hurting for data. While you focus on the basics, don’t overlook the more advanced details (see above) that can help you tweak your marketing strategy for better results.

Can you believe that Twitter has approximately 310 million monthly active users (as of March 31, 2016)? Or how about the fact that 83% of these users are active on mobile?

With statistics like these, it’s important for Twitter analytics to be a big part of any social media strategy.

Of course, there is more to Twitter than posting updates and hoping for a steady increase in your number of followers. You must focus your time, energy, and effort on the areas that have the best chance of making a positive impact on your company.

With this in mind, here are three details that deserve your attention:

1. Follower Growth

There is a big difference between hoping you grow your follower count and taking steps to make this happen.

This chart displays day over day and week over week growth.

But don’t stop here. Make note of the days when the biggest increases occur. What did you do differently? Did you post more updates? Did you share an interesting blog post? Dig deep to find out which actions have the biggest impact on your follower count.

2. Highest Engagement

You can make as many updates as you want, but remember this: engagement is what matters most.

You want your audience to engage with your content, whether it be through a retweet, reply, or like. When this happens, you know you’re on the right path. You also know what types of updates to share in the future.

“Rate that followers share your Tweets with their followers (amplification = number of RT’s per Tweet).”

This goes hand in hand with engagement, as you want your amplification rate to be as high as possible. In short, this means your followers are sharing your updates with their followers. In other words, your content is amplified!

Now what do you think about Twitter analytics? Will you spend more time on this part of your social media marketing plan in the future?

3. Sales Opportunities

Sales and marketing go together hand in hand, so it only makes sense to track KPIs associated with both areas of your business.

Is there anything better than seeing an increase in the number of sales opportunities in your pipeline?

This KPI should not be ignored, as it shows if your marketing strategy is generating the the results you’d expect.

In The End…

If you have yet to decide which marketing KPI is most important to your business, now’s the time to do so. There is a good chance that one of the three we discussed above will continue to impact your business well into the future.